Jai Hindley and his Bora colleagues still wore the new jersey at the team presentation and on the first leg of the tour, after which it was banned.
Photo: imago/Sirotti
Clothing is hot at this Tour de France. Numerous teams brought new jerseys to the tour, every sponsor wants to shine here. Israel Premier Tech, for example, had designers print the »Israel National Trail« long-distance hiking trail on the jerseys. “We want to show the many 100 million viewers that the Tour de France has around the world the Israel that we know,” said team financier Sylvan Adams. The “Israel National Trail” runs over 1100 kilometers from the north to the south of the country. With more than 21,400 meters of altitude, it is steeper than the Tour of France. It currently has twice as much altitude at 55,460 meters, but at 3,404 kilometers it is also three times longer.
The German Bora racing team also wanted to come to the Grand Depart with new jerseys. On the first stage of the Tour de France, however, it turned out to everyone’s amazement that the organizers and the world association UCI thought that the colors of the bibs were too close to the green jersey of the best sprinter. So the old clothes had to be taken out of the box. “I didn’t want to make a scandal out of it,” said team boss Ralph Denk to “nd”. But he was still a little frustrated. »One month before the race, special jerseys have to be registered, and then the UCI will decide about them. However, we have to produce ten weeks in advance,” he said.
It’s also interesting that these are quite different sets. Because now the technological development is far advanced. “It started in 2007, 2008, 2009 that cycling became interested in aerodynamics. Of course, clothing is of particular importance. The arms and upper body form the largest areas that are opposed to the wind,” explains Rolf Aldag, who is responsible for technical development as Head of Performance in the Bora team. With better aerodynamic properties on clothing and helmet, combined with the seat position optimized in the wind tunnel, you can still get a good 30 watts of energy savings today, Aldag is convinced. In an interview with »nd«, he named this difference as the advantage of the big WorldTour teams, who can afford tailor-made suits and days of wind tunnel testing. This difference is particularly evident in the time trial, said Aldag.
In a decade and a half of development work, different properties of materials have emerged. “There are many fibers that work well at certain speeds. We have a sprint suit that works at high speeds. Ideally, you have a different suit for someone who rides in the wind behind a breakaway all day than for someone who only has to sprint the last 200 meters, but at 75 km/h,” says Aldag. The jerseys for mountaineers have other fibers. It’s not aerodynamics that count, but weight and breathability.
In general, it is important to weigh up aerodynamic properties and wearing comfort. “You can’t just go extremely in one direction and say, I’m going to just shrink the racing driver into a film here. That’s great aerodynamically. But then after ten minutes it blows up because of overheating,” Aldag describes the consequences of a one-dimensional development. The old Bora jerseys, which have now been dug out again at the Tour de France, have at least the same properties as the banned ones.
Tom on tour
Tom Mustroph, cycling author and
Doping expert, reports for the 22nd time
for “nd” from the Tour de France.
